I'm not sure if this reply should go in the humor section or if I should just make the point that you are a very bad influence, Hardwood.

I saw quite a few bees in the windmill tank a couple of days ago, where someone recently had hives but has moved them. So I thought I too would try my hand at beelining today. It was hot enough for a hen to lay a hard boiled egg, so I thought a fair few would be down there drinking. I must say though, that your video is neglectful as to HOW to catch them. The tank is not small and it had to be done up a ladder. There were not as many bees as I'd thought, about 4 at a time and periods with none. They were racing around. We had a net and a finch box - the wrong finch box. We'd left the good one with the rubber entrance at home. After a long period of time we managed to catch about 20 after I got the hang of it, but this is not how many we ended up with. As I tried to relocate them from the net into the box, two more would escape or sting me. My offsider finally went back to get the good finch box but by then the numbers had dropped off around the water. We floured and let go one at a time the 3 we were left with. I could follow them for about 10 or 15 yards then they disappeared. And all went in different directions. Two of them though went towards the neighbours' fence where a cow had a new calf on our side of the fence and there were several mickey bulls bellowing on the other side. We couldn't have brought the dog because the cow would have upped it. So we went home, satisfied that we'd released our last bee and no more knowledgable as to where they resided.

We had lots of bees to work with and simply sucked them up with a bee vacuum. That gave us plenty of bees to mess around with. Maybe a little later in your season when your flows weaken you can set a capture box out baited with honey to get more bees? The more bees you catch the better. We'd release 3-4 at a time and try to follow them. That in itself was a learning curve as many would spiral upward and be quite hard to see by the time they headed home. It helps to have an eagle-eyed partner!

Better luck next time!Scott

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"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

local municipal/County/home owners association / board of health.A no buzz zone are laws against /regulating density and possibly no beekeeping

BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)

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"Tell me and I'll forget,show me and I may remember,involve me and I'll understand" Chinese Proverb

"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways." John F. KennedyFranklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/